but my last working pocketable/EveryDayCarry flashlight died on me yesterday, so I decided it was time to get after my little harem as nobody within a week's delivery had anything I actually like at a price I liked.
Nice collection! I'm carrying a Led Lenser T2 which was given to me by a previous employer. It sits in a holster adjacent to a Leatherman Charge Ti which is also a tool from a (much more) previous employer. I also end up carrying a Petzl headlamp now and then, and as backup I've got a 3-cell D-type Maglite, which has been converted to LED with a 3rd party lamp replacement. I started carrying a flashlight 30+ years ago, but then it of course was a Mini Maglite with a glowing resistor and it sat next to a Victorinox Officier. Now I've got a Victorinox Cybertool, silly name, good tool, but it lives in the backpack with my cables and adapters kit.
THEY LIVE!!! Yup... similar story here, only first a Xenon MiniMag nestled between Gerber Gator & MP600 multipliers for probably a decade or so... then I started doing more civilized work and moved to my grand-dad's preferred knife, a Victorinox or Wenger Camper/Woodsman. A proper "gentleman's pocket sword". When that happened, so did the move to small EDCs; something that fit comfoirtably with my pocket sword.
I splurged on a Innova X5 but it was one of the first generation that all turned purple and burned out quickly; they just didn't put out much useful light anyways. I soon learned I simply could not bear the feel of that big hunk of anodized aluminum between my teeth so started with this collection, the oldest of which is circa 2004-2006 or so IIRC. Even the little 10440-powered one puts out more useful light than that Innova did by the time I chunked it.
I have the headlight thing... but I'm clumsy and have given myself a good clobbering more than trying to get "just a wee bit closer" to my work due to poor vision, so have abandoned it except for a few scenarios.
I found my packet of lenses and was able to hammer the dents out of both my UltraFire C3s enough that they seal properly; not the prettiest result, but 100% functional and watertight. When you get into these kinds of lights, most of servicing them is janitorial work; scrubbing stuff clean with alcohol, cleaning glass, etc. Everything that makes light is all off-the-shelf bits you can buy by the fistful from LightMalls or similar sources.
Here's all the casualties from the two C3s; the upper one is first gen which put out a honest 180 lumens on high, but were older Cree emitters which really sucked some current (850-900mA) to do it. Also not nearly as good to the little 14500 cylindrical batteries these use; the LEDROAD controllers have a newer battery protection firmware which takes much better care of them. With the newer XML module, this thing will put out 220 lumens while drawing only 650-700mA.
Here I'm rebuilding the pill... first a new controller soldered into the heatsink body...
...then trim the leads to length and solder them in place on the Cree module. The loose Cree module went in the second C3; it got a new insulator because I'm changing die type and need to match the different package to the reflector, which has already been done on this one.
Now time to go shop for new 14500 cells; the ones I have are def not putting out the best, and I don't even know if my current fave
VāpCell ICR14500 is even available up here...
mnem
*lit AF*